The deal signed with China for constructing the country’s first ever tunnel under a river was apparently the result of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s clever “banquet diplomacy.”
“Beijing was not ready to sign the deal during the official talks as the Chinese construction company concerned was reluctant,” said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam at a press briefing yesterday.
Bangladesh and China signed a memorandum of understanding on constructing a multilane tunnel under the Karnaphuli River.
Sheikh Hasina raised the issue during a banquet dinner hosted in her honour, where Chinese finance and commerce ministers were present, on June 9. Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang instantly asked his officials to sort out the deal and it was eventually signed late at night, Shahriar said.
A senior official of the Foreign Ministry said at the dinner table Hasina had instructed Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haq and other Bangladeshi officials to negotiate the deal with the Chinese side.
“The Bridges Division secretary [Khandkar Anwar ul Islam] had the [draft of the] MoU on a memory stick and the Chinese side opened their office at night to negotiate with us,” he said.
After discussion, it was decided that it would be a government-to-government deal instead of government-to-private sector and Beijing would later select another company to construct the tunnel, he added.
It was signed about 12 midnight in Hasina’s presence at the guest house where she was staying, he said.
China will provide $700 million to construct the 3.4km tunnel, which will connect northern Chittagong with the unexplored eastern side of Karnaphuli. The tunnel is 2km from the Chittagong airport and will have an option to connect with deep-sea port at Sonadia.
Strategic partnership
Chinese President Xi Jinping had proposed alleviating the Bangladesh-China relationship to a strategic level, the state minister said at the press conference.
Dhaka and Beijing have closer comprehensive partnership of cooperation relationship right now. China has strategic partnership relations with Pakistan only.
“The Chinese president in his meeting with the prime minister said Bangladesh is an important country for China and it considers Dhaka as a strategic partner,” Shahriar said.
Both the countries are considering to alleviate the relationship to a strategic level, he said.
When two countries have strategic relationship, they enjoy an extreme form of engagement between them.
“The two sides viewed each other’s development as opportunities to further expand and raise the closer comprehensive partnership of cooperation between the two countries to a newer height,” a joint statement by Bangladesh and China said.
The two sides agreed to sustain the momentum of high-level interactions and engagements between the two countries, as well as intensify dialogue between governmental authorities, parliaments, political parties, armed forces, non-governmental platforms and local governments, the statement added.
The existing framework of holding regular consultations at the level of foreign secretary was satisfactory and it was agreed that the next round of consultation would be held in Bangladesh during the second half of this year.
Deep-sea port
Dhaka and Beijing agreed to continue negotiation on deep-sea port as Bangladesh needed more time to decide the matter, the state minister said.
“Several offers from different countries are pending with the government and Bangladesh will accept the best offer among them. We need more time,” he said.
Asked about reported opposition from India against the construction of a deep-sea port by China, he said no third country was related to this project.
Bangladesh asked all interested to submit proposals to build the deep-sea port and China, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands submitted proposals.
Other projects
Both sides agreed that the Chinese financial institutions will cooperate in six projects, including the Eastern Refinery Unit II and the Single Point Mooring project.
“The approximate assistance for the six projects is $5 billion and the interest rate is 2% with long repayment period,” Shahriar said.
In addition to this $5 billion, China would provide $1.4 billion for building a 1320MW coal-based power plant and $700 million for the tunnel under the Karnaphuli, he said.
The state minister informed the press that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was coming to Dhaka on a three-day state visit starting June 16.
This would be his first visit and four deals – establishment of a joint commission, promotion and protection of investment, cultural cooperation and a memorandum of understanding on scientific and technical cooperation in agriculture field – were expected to be signed during the visit, Shahriar said.
About the recent comments made by BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, he said it was a waste of time talking about him.
“He claimed things which even his father had not claimed. His statements are just utter nonsense,” said Shahriar.